The fragmentary statue depicts a mother-son dyad. On the right is the deified Amenophis I, holding a flail, a common attribute to depictions of Egyptian pharaohs. His companion is his mother, Ahmose-Nofretiri, who wears a vulture headdress. Ahmose-Nofretiri was important to Amenophis I’s rule as both his mother and the God’s Wife of Amun, a prominent political and religious position occupied only by queens. After their deaths, the two were worshipped as the divine patrons of the necropolis in Thebes, and were especially popular among the necropolis workers, who lived in a village nearby.

The pair was buried in a shared tomb, built initially for Ahmose-Nofretiri and expanded for her son. This tomb was excavated by Howard Carter from 1913 to 1914, and Freud, who often read excavation reports, certainly would have known of its discovery. Freud’s small statue probably comes from a domestic shrine. Freud may have been intrigued by the mother-son burial arrangement and its connection to his own Oedipus complex theory.

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